Defining the gap between research and practice in public relations

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1、JournalofMarketingCommunicationsVol.14,No.5,December2008,337–350Definingthegapbetweenresearchandpracticeinpublicrelationsprogrammeevaluation–towardsanewresearchagendaabAnneGregoryandTomWatson*aCentreforPublicRelationsStudies,LeedsBusinessSchool,LeedsMetropolitanUniversity,bLeeds,UK;TheMedia

2、School,BournemouthUniversity,Poole,UKThecurrentsituationinpublicrelationsprogrammeevaluationisneatlysummarizedbyMcCoywhocommentedthat‘probablythemostcommonbuzzwordsinpublicrelationsinthelasttenyearshavebeenevaluationandaccountability’(McCoy2005,3).Thispaperexaminestheacademicandpractitioner

3、-basedliteratureandresearchonprogrammeevaluationanditdetectsdifferentprioritiesandapproachesthatmaypartlyexplainwhythedebateonacceptableandagreedevaluationmethodscontinues.Itanalysesthosedifferencesandproposesaresearchagendatobridgethegapandmovethedebateforward.Keywords:evaluation;measureme

4、nt;publicrelations;relationships;research;returnoninvestmentIntroductionEvaluationhaslongbeenidentifiedasamajorissuebypractitioners(Watson1994;WhiteandBlamphin1994).Ithasoftenincludedthesearchforasingle,universallyapplicableevaluationmeasureforpublicrelations,colloquiallyknownasthe‘silverbu

5、llet’(GregoryandWhite2008).Latterlythefocusofevaluationhasmovedtotheuseofmetricsthatexpresstheresultsofpublicrelationsactivityusingbusinesslanguage,suchasReturnonInvestment.Businessingeneral,recognizesthatasimple,singlefinancialmeasuredoesnotgiveanaccuratereflectionofacompany’strueworthbeca

6、useotherfactorsneedtobetakenintoaccounttodemonstrateoverallvalue.TheintroductionoftechniquessuchasKaplanandNorton’s(1996)BalancedScorecardandtriple-bottom-linereportingareevidencethatmajororganizationsworldwideconsiderthatarangeofaccountabilitiestoahostofstakeholdersdefinetheirabilitytooper

7、ateandprosper.Thepracticeofpublicrelationsevaluation,however,hasbeeninstatiswithawidelyreportedemphasisonoutputmeasurement,especiallyfocusedonmediarelations(WatsonandSimmons2004).Althoughacademicstudieshavemovedtonewareasofresearchsuchasmeasuresofrelatio